The Sicaran Battle Tank had me from "hello".I loved every bit of it, so when I got one as a gift I was overjoyed and so looking forward to making it the first vehicle in my War Hounds Legion.It wasn't easy at first and certainly made me very angry at aspects of the way Forge World do things, but once it was together this thing paid dividends.I desperately wished I had one picture on the entire internet of how War Hounds vehicles looked - but alas - so I got to run riot on markings, paint deco - all the fun stuff when you have your own Chapter.For the moment (from what I can see) this may be the only War Hounds Sicaran out there - for now!

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Paint Scheme

Initially the only brief on the colour scheme was it was the reverse of the World Eaters scheme. I even asked Forge World and that is their official line. So initially I went with that.Obviously I wanted to avoid it looking like an Ultramarines one, so the white had to not just be little bits, but major areas - in fact the Hound symbol is only ever seen on white, so there was already that element.At the same time though my whole interest in the War Hounds was that they sported a very similar scheme to the World Eaters I grew up on - a dark blue.The World Eaters, the successor to the War Hounds, also used a lot of bronze and dark metal, so I wanted to have that tying the two related forces together.I also kept highlighting to a minimum to keep the dark nature of the War Hounds and move away from the Ultramarines look. If this is on the table against Ultras - I want it to look different!

Markings

Markings were interesting due to the lack of research materials on the war Hounds and also markings for the era. After much frustration, I eventually thought that this gave me somewhat free-reign to invent them. Just because Forge World hadn't provided them, the universe still existed, so why not have fun with it?!The Forge World decal sheet for the World eaters provides three different sized War Hounds symbols and a tonne of hound heads so they ended up being the bulk of my markings. I don't know what the hound head represents, but to me it's just a pseudo-War Hounds insignia.

The wreath with the hound head is a composite of two decals plus the numbered decal. They fitted really nicely on here - a last minute addition as I thought there weren't enough markings.The hound marking on the turret was one of the very first I thought of, and again it fitted perfectly.With the War Hounds being identified so strongly by their Legion number I wanted to have a lot on there.

Again based on the turret markings, this marking on the sponsons fitted really well. I could have gone with a larger hound's head, but this works too.The skull on top of the targetter is actually from the inside of the wreath I used on the front of the Sicaran.This isn't so much a kill marking but just a symbol of death!

The Legion symbol itself only features 3 times on the Sicaran, and is accompanied by the Legion number on the sides of the vehicle.I didn't follow the markings of the World Eaters at all knowing how much the Legion changed after the bloody introduction of Angron to their ranks.

Details

As I mentioned earlier, there were lots of details I wante dto add but wasn't sure what was appropriate for the time. I knew I wanted to add a Raptor Imperialis for the service to the Emperor during his early campaigns, but it was were to put it that confounded me, so I added it without adding it...

I added the lightning bolts of the Emperor to the back of the turret as a form of army or campaign honour and then...

... added this. I love adding scrolls and honours to things and this is the second time I've done it, the Contemptor was the last. This is more than an Oath of Moment, it is an honour topped off by the Emperor's official Raptor Imperialis down the bottom. I'm really happy with this addition and had to stop myself from adding more!

Finally...

This has been a really rewarding end to a really involved project and I really want to thank Emma & Rob.Emma for buying me the kit and both of you for your patience as I posed all kinds of questions you couldn't possibly have known the answer too unless you worked for Forge World. So thank you!

Looks great! I love the sicaran. Love the blues you've gotten here, and your whites are really well rendered. That combined with your attention to all the little details makes this quite a lovely centerpiece tank!

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